http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/ Engadget HD Comments for MovieBeam: who wants it? http://www.engadgethd.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadgethd.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/
STILL despite it all, I want to be the first on my block to try it out. I really can't help myself. Maybe the 360 will be back in stock soon so I can waste my money on that instead. :)]]>Feb 15th 2006 7:51PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/
I am quite stunned that this idea even made it this far. Are there really people that think this has ANY chance of succeeding?

It's too bad MovieBeam is not publicly listed. I'd short their stock.

Hopefully someone will figure out a good use for all those dead MovieBeam boxes next year when the service is discontinued.]]>Feb 15th 2006 7:56PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/
I have another theory that I wasn't bold enough to put on the post. MovieBeam will be integrated into the rumored Apple media device, consumers will be able to watch their content, iTunes content and MovieBeam. This falls in line with last years rumors that Apple was working on a Video distribution network as well as the fact that Jobs has close ties with Disney. But it is too much of a stretch.]]>Feb 15th 2006 8:18PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/
She was intrigued. The $230 cost was a barrier to her acceptance, but she liked that you pay by the movie. We don't have TiVo or Netflix because we don't like to pay per month (we've got enough monthly charged with phones and DSL, etc.).

So, Moviebeam is appealing to cheap OTA HD lovers. How big is that market?

The only saving grace is that Moviebeam is going to go the way of Aikimbo, i.e. integrate their software with MCE so you don't have to buy any additional hardware. While I don't have a MCE box, I will be building one in the future, when some of the component costs come down (when I can build a HD box in the $500 range). At that time, both Aikimbo and Moviebeam software will be on my box.]]>Feb 16th 2006 9:15AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/As an HD lover do you think you will be satisfied with only 10% of the movies being in HD?

I agree that this would work better in combination with another product.

If you order it let me know, I would love to hear your impressions.]]>Feb 16th 2006 10:13AMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/
My Letter
--------
Question: You have a new toy. This new toy will be first bought by early
adopters, those techie of kind of people who first bought Tivo and
DirecTV and digital cable and whatever else. These same people are also
the people who have given up their landline and just have a cellphone
because why pay for that extra line you never need? They do have a cable
modem for Internet, but no landline.

So why make your device require a landline? Why not put an RJ45 jack in
and use DHCP and just connect over the Internet? Tivo's forums are full
of people who have had to manually modify their boxes to use the
Internet instead of a landline.

I'd love to get your product, but since the only two people in my house
have cell phones and we have no landline, we can't use your product. If
it had WiFi or RJ-45, no problem... but I'm not going to get a landline
installed and pay another 26 bucks a month just to have it available for
a once-a-month phone call from your product.

-----

Their Response
-------------
Your specific question was as follows:

Why does it require a phone line and not any other forms of dialing in?

The MovieBeam player was designed to hookup to your landline only.
During the setup process, the player must call out in order to
initialize your account. Thereafter, it connects to MovieBeam by phone
in order to keep your account current. If you leave your player
connected to a phone line at all times, you will not have to bother with
it -- it will call in as necessary without interrupting your telephone
service or your movie-viewing. At the very least, your player must
connect with MovieBeam by phone at least once every 2 weeks or $28 of
movie-viewing charges, whichever comes first. You do not have to give us
any landline number; you can have your player dial in anywhere. I hope
this information has helped you. If you'd like we can add you to a
contact list to keep you updated on the latest developments.

You will notice that the player has a variety of hookups that are not
currently in use but are there for when the software has been developed;
Ethernet is one of these connections.

Thank you again for taking time to let us know how you feel about
MovieBeam. We welcome further comments and hope that you will always
feel free to contact us, either by email -- as you've done -- or by
calling us at 1-866-865-1500.]]>Feb 16th 2006 12:39PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/
As the service move forward and morphs into just another software package for MCE, I can see them offering more and more HD movies. Hard drives just keep getting cheaper and cheaper, and capacities keep going up and up. You can get a terabyte for $600.

I'm not getting anything until I build the MCE box. I can't seem to price one out for less than $800, which is just too expensive for me.]]>Feb 16th 2006 1:49PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/
Thank you for inquiring about MovieBeam. I'm happy to answer your
questions.

The MovieBeam Player will work with virtually any television, whether
HD-capable or not. If you have an HD television, you'll be able to enjoy
a selection of up to 10 movies in HD at any given time - as long as you
have the necessary HDMI cable. Like all movies on the player, several of
the HD selections will rotate regularly. We acknowledge that HD can be
transmitted through component video cables but due to our licensing with
movie studios we can only use the HDMI because of its enhanced security
capabilities.

You can purchase an HDMI cable from an electronics store in your area,
or you can order one through MovieBeam Customer Care by calling us at
1-866-865-1500
]]>Feb 16th 2006 1:56PMhttp://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/02/15/moviebeam-who-wants-it/I've had the opportunity to be a product tester for MovieBeam's newest box, and stopped in here while i was scoping people's reaction... them's some fiery words you used, and I wanted to offer my 2 cents.

Just wanted to address your video quality paragraph (the last one) -- the math you use is a sound deduction with the info you had, but the conclusion about quality is off, in my humblest of opinions. I'm told MB uses Windows Media Player Codecs with variable compression, so different movies get different treatment. But I have to say, I've spent a considerable amount of time sitting in front of both HD and SD MovieBeam movies on huge plasma flatscreens, and as a cinephile (who minored in Cinema Studies in college) i honestly couldn't tell there was any compression at all -- the movies looked looked like Movies, not crappy downloads... Crisp, full motion, bright color, surround sound on most things i saw -- SD looks really good, definitely as good as DVD. and don't get me started on HD (holy mackarel, i love the wonders of modern technology)

I don't know all that much about the other things you mentioned like pricing model... I guess MB isn't always gonna be right for everyone. but i know there's a constant stream of new options and features coming down the pipeline -- like i heard internet connectivity's comin soon... and i imagine that that should address things like landline necessity, etc. anyway, my 2 cents...

]]>Mar 3rd 2006 12:59PM